I'm a minister and a sexologist. Yes, those words do go together! I am also the executive director of the Religious Institute (www.religiousinstitute.org), a multifaith organization dedicated to sexual health and justice. I hope you'll join me in exploring the connection between sexuality, religion and spirituality, and the need for sexual justice in our faith communities and society.

Monday, August 17, 2009

You May Now Kiss the Brides

I officiated at my first LEGAL wedding for a same sex couple this weekend.I've married other same sex couples before, but I've never been able to sign a wedding license for them.It was a beautiful summer day. The wedding overlooked Long Island Sound. Their entire families, from great aunts and grandmothers to babies in arms were there. Their parents walked them down the aisle. They held hands and beamed into each other's eyes as they recited their vows. We celebrated the miracle of their love and their commitment.They asked me to incorporate the actual signing of the license into the ceremony itself. They asked me to speak for a few minutes after their vows, after the readings, after the rings, about how lucky they felt to be able to marry in Connecticut and have that marriage recognized in their home state of Massachusetts, and how we all wished for the day that all would be able to marry as they could.I signed the license with their mothers as witnesses. And then I said, "By the power vested in me by the state of Connecticut, and recognized in five other states, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, New Zealand, and soon to be many more states and countries, I now pronounce you legally wed."And everyone cried and cheered. Then, I blessed them, as I do every couple I marry. And ended, "you may now kiss the brides."It was an ordinary summer wedding...and yet extraordinary. Later, one of the more elderly relatives said to me, "you can hardly believe that there are people who think God opposes this." I told her I couldn't believe that at all.